Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Provenance

This was supposed to be the happiest day in the life of Sharon Schechter and Roman Buksafon, but on Monday, a day before their wedding, the Chief Rabbinate informed he couple they were not allowed to marry.

"You are adopted and therefore your Jewishness cannot be verified," a rabbi at the Chief Rabbinate told Roman, who denies being adopted and says he has produced all the documents required by the Rabbinate to receive a wedding permit.

The rest of the article details what seems to be a requirement that one prove one is not adopted before a marriage will be performed.

The rabbinate has been really shitty about this in recent years, especially to Jews from the US who don't have "Jewish" printed on their birth certificate. The New York Times Magazine had a lengthy piece on the subject last year if anyone's interested.

The new analysis shows that Jewish ancestry reflects a mosaic of genetic sources. While earlier studies focused on the Middle Eastern component of Jewish DNA, new research has revealed that both Europeans and Central Asians also made significant genetic contributions to Jewish ancestry. Moreover, while the DNA studies have confirmed the close genetic interrelatedness of many Jewish communities, they have also confirmed what many suspected all along: Jews do not constitute a single group distinct from all others.